As the economy falls, Congressional pay rises

[GenSeneca]

Politicians sit in ivory towers barking demands at the CEO's of failing corporations, demanding they abandon their private jets, demanding they take massive pay cuts, demanding they re-organize their companies to bring them out of debt and become sustainable... In the meantime:

A crumbling economy, more than 2 million constituents who have lost their jobs this year, and congressional demands of CEOs to work for free did not convince lawmakers to freeze their own pay.

Instead, they will get a $4,700 pay increase, amounting to an additional $2.5 million that taxpayers will spend on congressional salaries, and watchdog groups are not happy about it.

Who is going to demand of our politicians what they demand of corporations?

Since no one else is... I will.

Politicians should be forced to give up their private jets, let them carpool or fly commercially, same as the big 3 execs, to save the taxpayers some money.

Politicians should be forced to work for $1 a year, the same deal the big 3 execs agreed to, in order to save the taxpayers some money. Just about all of them are millionaires anyway...

And its LONG overdue that politicians be forced to balance the budget and bring America out of debt. They need to make the tough but necessary cuts to government spending, they need to re-organize government programs and bring them to a sustainable level.

If government thinks it has the right to tell corporations how to run their businesses in return for taxpayer money, then it's the job of we the people, the taxpayers, to hold politicians accountable for this hypocrisy and demand they follow the same rules.

While I'm sure some on both sides will join me in making these demands, I don't expect any of the Progressives to join me in making such demands.... they are all busy attacking Bristol Palin, her boyfriend Levi and his mother. Its far more important to them that defenseless people who hold no power in government, and have no affect on their lives, be viciously brutalized as hillbilly meth-heads because that satisfies some narcissistic yearning for an outlet of their hateful bigotry. They could never bring themselves to launch such derision toward, or make demands upon, their benevolent progressive benefactors in Washington, that would require intellectual honesty and adherence to a single standard for all politicians regardless of political ideology.

 

[Bunz]

I am disgusted by Congress acting in this manner. It would have taken an afternoon of parlimentary procedure to at the very least to hold thier pay steady. It is shameful considering the economy and the demands placed on various CEOs concerning this.
I do generally agree with you here GenSeneca.

As for your last paragraph rant, there is already a thread for that, lets keep that topic in that thread.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Politicians sit in ivory towers barking demands at the CEO's of failing corporations, demanding they abandon their private jets, demanding they take massive pay cuts, demanding they re-organize their companies to bring them out of debt and become sustainable...

If these CEOs are so sharp, why aren't they going DIRECTLY (themselves) to the Motherlode of financing (China/Japan), and take-out their OWN personal-loans, to make their companies "more sustainable"....rather-than expecting the U.S. Government to bail-them-out....and, pass-on the interest-payments to U.S. taxpayers??!!!

What ever happened to all o' those jobs that were supposed to be created by the BUSHCO Tax-Cut Bonus-Bucks???

If CEOs expect their failures to be Socialized, blaming congressional pay-scales (for all o' the country's problems) is merely one more distraction (for public-consumption).

"But the situation now—in which the widening gap between two classes at the nation's extremes is being brought into sharper focus by the forces of economic reality and combative Presidential politics—would challenge even the most sensational crisis PR pro. And it sure makes it difficult to feel sorry for unimaginably wealthy captains of finance to rake in extra tens of millions when they did such a poor job. Do you know any middle-level manager at your company's sales department who lost tons of the company's money and then got a fantasy severance package?

Hardly a new story line. But what makes it fresh politics are the daily reminders that average Americans are confronting shrinking job opportunities, home values, and stock portfolios, while the corporate billionaires cruise on."

 

[GenSeneca]

As for your last paragraph rant, there is already a thread for that, lets keep that topic in that thread.

Just pointing out that the progressives make such topics about private citizens a priority while ignoring genuine issues about the politicians that actually affect the lives of all Americans.

If these CEOs are so sharp, why aren't they going DIRECTLY (themselves) to the Motherlode of financing (China/Japan), and take-out their OWN personal-loans, to make their companies "more sustainable"....rather-than expecting the U.S. Government to bail-them-out....and, pass-on the interest-payments to U.S. taxpayers??!!!

I'm a capitalist, the companies should be able to fend for themselves or go bankrupt as a consequence... bailouts should not be an option. I'm against all corporate bailouts, all corporate subsidies, all corporate welfare. Its your side, the statists, who think these companies are "too big to fail" and therefore is the responsibility of taxpayers to foot the bill.

If CEOs expect their failures to be Socialized, blaming congressional pay-scales (for all o' the country's problems) is merely one more distraction (for public-consumption).

Politicians expect their failures to be Socialized with never-ending taxpayer money and they don't even have to ask, they just take it.... You are the one engaging in distractions here, with your clown colors and bold print.... I didn't say congressional pay scales caused "all o' the country's problems" or even some, I said it was hypocritical for politicians to demand from corporations what they themselves are unwilling, and incapable, of doing.

Its the proverbial splinter in their neighbors eye that politicians get lackeys like you frothed up about, to distract you from the plank in their own eye. So long as your political handlers provide a target for your vitriol, they can escape all accountability for their own actions.

Shaman, If you are so against bailing out these companies.... Why aren't you upset with your own Progressives for supporting the bailouts? It was your Democrat controlled congress, who just gave themselves a pay raise, calling people like me "unpatriotic" for being against the bailouts.
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A side note to Pocketfullofshells: You batched up a storm about how you thought the Republicans were calling you unpatriotic, without actually using that word, for daring to have a difference of opinion and so you went running to the Democrats who are now specifically calling everyone who disagrees with their plans "unpatriotic"... Will you now take issue with them for this nonsense, or is it OK for them to actually call people "unpatriotic" for dissention?

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Politicians expect their failures to be Socialized with never-ending taxpayer money and they don't even have to ask, they just take it....

Examples, please. ​

 

[GenSeneca]

Examples, please.​

How about our yearly deficits and the National Debt? Can you seriously think of NO failures of government that leave the taxpayers stuck with the bill? You think the war in Iraq was a failure of Bush, right? Well, who pays that bill? 40 years of fighting the "War on Poverty" and we have more people in poverty now than when the war started.... who pays that bill?

Now please tell me: Are you for, or against, the bailouts? Your Progressive leaders in Washington are ALL FOR the bailouts and call people like me unpatriotic for not wanting taxpayers to get stuck with that bill.

Also tell me this: Are you for, or against, Congress giving itself a raise during what they themselves call "the worst economic crisis since the great depression"? They are demanding that the leaders of private companies take pay cuts but they, as our leaders, are unwilling to take paycuts and instead give themselves raises with taxpayer money.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

How about our yearly deficits and the National Debt?

Gee.....ya' really wanna bring THAT up????

​

 

[GenSeneca]

Shaman,

Are you for, or against, the bailouts?

Are you for, or against, Congress giving itself a raise during what they themselves call "the worst economic crisis since the great depression"?

 

[GenSeneca]

Gee.....ya' really wanna bring THAT up????

​

Even with all of Bush's spending, he hasn't come close to racking up the 54 trillion dollars in debt that we are currently stuck with thanks to the Social Security Ponzi scheme - A debt thats courtesy of the Progressive movement.

If your partisan hack website factored in all the "off the books" spending that Democrat presidents oversaw, Social Security, Welfare, Medicare/Medicaid, the Republicans would look like choir boys in comparison. Fact is, they both stink at fiscal responsibility and you only care to scapegoat Republicans for "all o' the country's problems" as if shifting blame will somehow pay down our debt.

 

[Mr. Shaman]

Even with all of Bush's spending, he hasn't come close to racking up the 54 trillion dollars in debt that we are currently stuck with thanks to the Social Security Ponzi scheme - A debt thats courtesy of the Progressive movement.

......You mean, as an answer to Trickle Down I..........right?? ​

 

[GenSeneca]

......You mean, as an answer to Trickle Down I..........right?? ​

Shaman,

Are you for, or against, the bailouts?

Are you for, or against, Congress giving itself a raise during what they themselves call "the worst economic crisis since the great depression"?

Please stay on topic.